Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 155: The Red Dragon Sage

Nol and Teest turned their heads almost simultaneously and spoke almost at the same time.

“Is it okay to be so famous? Has Subelbot caused you any trouble?” Nol asked.

“I’ve been wanting to ask. Painter, you seem to know too much about the dragons from the inside,” Teest said.

Ye Meng—the black dragon Imnarka stuttered “uh” several times, seemingly uncertain where to start. The smile on Painter’s face grew softer. “Let me explain.”

When Godfrey Painter was Pope, he had a surprisingly good relationship with the dragon race. As a world-renowned magic genius, he was especially good at restoring lost ancient magic, which earned him the grudging recognition of Subelbot.

Those ancient magics were originally intended by the system for players to gain favor with the dragons, but Painter ended up using them instead.

In particular, the Red Dragon “Sage” Granatum had a friendly relationship with Painter. Together, they created powerful communication crystals and occasionally exchanged some knowledge and theories about magic.

“We kept in touch once a week, and Granatum often mentioned this little black dragon. She’s quite famous among the new generation of young dragons.”

Painter curiously looked at the black dragon. “She chose water magic, which is generally unpopular, yet she developed tactics that combine water and poison magic with close combat support.”

According to Granatum, the little black dragon always disappeared in her free time. He tracked her down and finally caught her in the Dragon Tomb Garden—she said she was going to replenish corpse poison toxins. Out of curiosity about the new magic, Granatum allowed it.

The little black dragon was reclusive and rarely interacted with dragons her age, so she didn’t have good relations with them. When the new generation heard that the Red Dragon Sage granted her the privilege of roaming the Dragon Tomb, a few aggressive ones couldn’t hold back and went to trouble her.

“She fought one against five, beating those who came to provoke her until they were bruised and poisoned, taking a whole week to recover. What’s more terrifying is that this ‘Graveyard Ghost’ didn’t say a word after defeating her opponents and turned to walk towards the bones.”

“Granatum guessed that it was because he killed her sibling in front of her when she was just born, which led to the black dragon’s twisted personality… Now it seems…”

The little black dragon embarrassingly hid behind Nol, trying to use this normal sized adult male to cover her large body, her eyes full of embarrassment.

Painter thought that when she defeated five dragons of her age, the girl was probably just scared and eager to escape to calm down. Since she has Mr. Nol as a mentor, she must have won easily, and it’s not surprising that the defeated dragons demonized her.

…The Corpse Poison Black Dragon Imnarka, another creature chosen by Paradise.

Recently, Mr. Painter had been watching and eating in the Lost Tower, his mind never stopping.

After the oracle event, in exchange, Nol told him that “the ancient Demon King never confronted the two gods” and readily admitted his so-called “Demon King” identity.

As for why the ancient Demon King became a Demon King, Nol didn’t say. Even so, Painter still didn’t accept the legitimacy of the “Demon King” definition.

In his view, there are three god-level beings on the Tahe continent: Star Stealer Sol, Nol, and the Nameless Loser.

Having witnessed the situation in the Oracle Cave, Painter had a clear understanding.

The two gods were actually one, and the opposition was just a lie. Painter wasn’t shocked or devastated by this; instead, he felt it made more sense—God didn’t care about beings and had never cared; everything was just a layout to gain power.

The fact that the two piles of garbage were actually one pile didn’t stir strong emotions in him.

As for where the god “Nol” came from and what the situation with the creatures of Paradise was, Painter hadn’t yet figured out. Once it came to key points, they communicated in a mysterious language.

Painter had some guesses in his heart, but to be honest, he wasn’t curious and had no intention of delving deeper. He only wanted to do one thing—

“Anyway, as the saying goes, friends in the Dragon’s Lair are always better than enemies.” The former Pope exclaimed loudly.

“What wonderful order and peace.”

He just wanted this land to be free from the arrogant control of Star Stealer Sol.

“What a touching reunion.” Teest crossed his arms, eyeing Painter skeptically. “Now that we’re in the Dragon’s Lair, how do we talk to the other dragons? As far as I know, even humans wouldn’t like strangers suddenly appearing in their home.”

“If I remember correctly, someone said they would help introduce us.”

Upon hearing this, the little black dragon suddenly became nervous. “Don’t! The leader has been in a particularly bad mood recently, and he’s definitely not willing to meet anyone randomly… How about you guys run back the way you came? Hide for a while?”

“That dumb dragon is much more close-minded than Xiao Xu said, acting as if it’s always ready for war.” Elder Chen took the opportunity to complain.

This time, Grandma Li didn’t refute Elder Chen’s complaint.

Compared to the dangerous situation at hand, “Xiao Xu’s partner is a man” was trivial, like a speck of nasal mucus. Besides, that young man was really handsome; she couldn’t find anything to criticize.

“It’s okay, Subelbot can’t beat me.” Nol hurriedly reassured the three. “The problem now is how to set the right mood, to make him willing to talk to us.”

Little Black Dragon Ye Meng: “……”

The old couple: “……”

What terrifying thing are you talking about? The three vaguely remembered how pitifully indescribable Nol’s attributes were half a year ago. Having lived here for so long, they had some idea of just how strong the dragon leader Subelbot really was.

“Xiao Xu, during the time you were away, did you end up eating a dragon?” Grandma Li murmured.

Nol smiled sheepishly. “Sort of.”

Considering the effect of [Fallen Death], this wasn’t really wrong to say.

“If necessary, I can take you to meet Subelbot at any time.”

After they finished their encrypted conversation in Country C’s language, Painter said leisurely, “But as you said, if you’re here to discuss the quest about the undead dragon, it’s better to wait until Subelbot is in a better mood.”

“Personally, I suggest meeting the Red Dragon Sage first, to complete your original commission—uncovering the secrets of the dragon race.”

……

To meet the Red Dragon Sage, Teest reluctantly put on a formal robe, and so did Nol—it was just a set of clothes to avoid a lot of trouble, so why not?

The elaborately made robe hid most of their muscular outlines. At a glance, the two really had a bit of a fragile, noble air about them.

They randomly chose a tomb chamber as a changing room, and Painter tactfully picked another. At the moment, only Nol and Teest were in the room.

Nol couldn’t help but reach out his hand, carefully styling Teest’s silver-white long hair, letting it cascade down like moonlight along the white robe.

Teest then took out a pair of moonstone earrings from the robe—God knows when he had prepared them—and gently clipped them onto Nol’s earlobes.

“It really suits you,” Teest said softly.

“You really do have everything.”

There was no mirror here. Nol raised his hand to touch the elegantly styled long earrings.

Teest didn’t say a word. He just looked at him, as if to engrave the scene in his mind—here the will-o’-wisps flickered, making the delicate and beautiful earrings shine with a beautiful cyan halo. It made those blue eyes even more captivating.

It was just an ordinary white formal robe, but with Nol wearing it, standing in the cyan firelight, he looked ethereally misty. He had a kind of… strange temperament that was neither living nor dead.

Nol didn’t think much about it. He turned his eyes to the drifting will-o’-wisps, reaching out to play with them. The will-o’-wisps smoothly slid over his fingertips. With a simple mental command, they would land on his fingers like butterflies.

It wasn’t hot, but rather had a strange warm and cool touch.

“…When I first came to this world, I was like this,” Nol reflected.

“White robe?” Teest still looked steadily at Nol.

“No, a will-o’-wisp.”

With a light movement of his fingers, a will-o’-wisp flew up from his fingertips, gently stopping in front of Teest. The bright cyan flame lit up Teest’s golden eyes, creating a subtle gray-white color.

Teest instinctively tried to grab it. But just by closing his fingers, the fragile will-o’-wisp dissipated in his palm.

The scattering fragments drifted in all directions. They fluttered, collided, merged, and spawned a few new small will-o’-wisps in the distance.

So fragile.

Fragile to the point Teest had never paid them much attention before.

In other words, when Nol met him, he had already evolved once, completely changing his appearance. Teest reached out his hand, gently scooping up the first will-o’-wisp. It burned in his palm, neither solid nor void, giving him a feeling that was hard to describe.

This time, he didn’t dare grab it. The will-o’-wisp stayed for a while, then drifted away. It hadn’t gone ten steps before it was hit by another, larger will-o’-wisp and was instantly devoured.

Was Nol really such a thing when he first awakened?

Star Stealer Sol had its reasons to fear the Creator God. Just in half a year, Nol had become the absolute ruler of this graveyard, able to suppress the dragon leader Subelbot. If he were Star Stealer Sol, he would probably be even more wary.

Thinking this, Teest inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.

Yeah, it’s all in the past. His Nol no longer needed to be troubled by fragility and powerlessness.

“This thing is too weak. It hasn’t been easy for you.”

Teest casually played with a few more. He swung his arm, bringing up a breeze that blew the will-o’-wisps away. “Honey, how do we catch them?”

Nol laughed. He stretched out his fingers, and the drifting will-o’-wisp instantly stilled, all flying to Teest’s side. The originally dim environment was brightly lit. Countless will-o’-wisp floated around Teest, creating a spectacular, dreamlike scene.

“Don’t try to forcefully catch them,” Nol said. “You just need to ask me.”

The will-o’-wisps floated lightly, while Teest stared at Nol’s lips.

“Then you have to stay by my side,” he replied nonchalantly after a few seconds.

“Wow, this again. I haven’t heard it for so long. It feels somewhat fresh to hear again.” Nol savored the Mad Monk’s coquettishness for a while and couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry. I promised you, I won’t leave—”

“It’s not the same,” Teest said with a long sigh. “I feel ‘don’t leave me’ and what you just said aren’t the same thing.”

“How are they different?” Nol raised his eyebrows.

Teest was silent. A few seconds later, he waved away the will-o’-wisps and straightened the front of his collar.

“I don’t know. I can’t quite put it into words.”

In the end, he answered softly, “But it’s definitely different, I think.”

Nol looked at him puzzled for a while. “Let’s go, Painter and the others must be getting anxious.”

Seeing they had no intention of negotiating with the leader, Lynn voluntarily stayed in the Dragon Tomb Garden, syncing up everything happening in the outside world with the neighbors. For the Supreme Domination Witch, this place full of skeletons was as warm and relaxing as home.

Nol: “What if…”

“Don’t worry. If you really start fighting outside, I’ll immediately run with the three of them and won’t wait even a second,” Lynn declared decisively.

Nol was choked up. How to put it… This was truly worthy of Miss Lynn—rational to the point of being upsetting. Although that was indeed his intention to entrust…

Teest then faced Painter with a stern face. “…So, in the end, you still missed the point. How are you going to explain ‘us suddenly appearing in the Dragon’s Lair’?”

“Subelbot knows I have two archbishops, so he allows me to bring two beings in and out of the Dragon’s Lair, no questions asked.”

Painter explained calmly, “After I defected from the Temple, the dragon race didn’t care, and this rule has been extended. Strictly speaking, Mr. Nol doesn’t count as a being. I didn’t break the agreement.”

Not asking about the method, Nol felt helpless inside. He didn’t know if the dragons truly trusted Painter’s character, or if it was just their arrogance, believing that within Painter’s social circle, there couldn’t exist a being that could threaten the dragon race with just three people.

As a result, old Painter brought two false gods. Nol felt somewhat sympathetic to Subelbot.

“The Red Dragon Sage is skilled in ancient magic analysis and historical research. He is absolutely loyal to Subelbot but also has a certain fondness for knowledgeable non-dragon beings who are wise.”

Painter’s tone was cheerful, obviously not realizing the horror of what he had done. “He will definitely appreciate you, Lord Nol. As long as you provide him with equivalent knowledge, he is willing to share secrets that are harmless to the race.”

“The things I want to ask will definitely not harm the interests of the dragon race,” Nol immediately assured.

“What about me?” Teest said.

“You’d better remain silent,” Painter expressed, not so tactfully. “Dragons have no interest in how to slaughter humans. To put it offensively, your understanding of religion is also not as rich as mine. The Red Dragon’s interest in you might not even be as much as a yellow mushroom growing on a tree stump.”

Teest chuckled, his tone carrying an indistinctly dangerous air. “You—”

“His questions will be paid for with my knowledge.” Nol’s tone was calm. “Teest’s thirst for truth is no less than mine. He always comes up with novel perspectives… You can ask freely, Teest.”

“Can I ask, ‘Why are you talking to a human like Godfrey Painter who lacks insight’?” Teest winked at Nol.

“…No. You can’t.”

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